Godhorn Tech:Volume3 Chapter10

Chapter 10 Section 1

People are foolish.

But in the end, they worked together and found the right answer.

They stood on the summit of a nameless mountain.

The broad, flat summit was void of vegetation and it contained the stone altar where a juvenile’s horn was broken off to create the world’s first Godhorn Tech. This was the first and final battlefield.

A distorted tone rang out.

The Lucifer Horn had charged in and torn off a layer of the summit with its massive form. All so it could crush Philia Shout, the 11th and the Mother of Wicked Gods.

A white beam surged forth at the same time.

The ultra-close-range shot was fired with the muzzle pressed against the side of her head.

“Gh.”

However.

The girl remained standing, her head only tilted a bit to the side.

She had not lost a single drop of blood.

In fact, the Lucifer Horn’s course had been altered, forcing it to take a large turn in midair to recover.

Lucifer Shout made some adjustments to her voice as if correcting some kind of error.

“Gekuslba. Asback. Tlets. Ahh, there we go. I have had enough of you. It’s time I obliterated you. I don’t have time to waste on fools who can’t understand creation or destruction.”

All the horns on her body shrank down for a moment before jutting out like spring-loaded contraptions. Every part of her soft, feminine skin was decorated with the sinister Wicked God horns that could destroy the entire continent.

The sharp horns came from all ten of her fingers and several of them squirmed like wings on her back. In all, it looked like she should have had trouble moving.

Glaring eyes peered out through the gaps in her bright pink hair.

“I might as well destroy this world. It certainly isn’t worth preserving!!!!!!”

The air roared.

Pink light danced all around her. Most likely, only Miyabi Blackgarden and a few others could see that light. Those boxy will-o’-the-wisps trailing pink light were the true identity of the sorcery bombs. They each gained different textures: stone, dirt, grass, wood, etc. Once they were embedded in the background, they would fully transform into that material and begin the countdown to doomsday.

Except…

“No, I’m through being sneaky.”

Something materialized and was cut out of the ground.

It looked about the size of an ordinary wooden box, but with a smooth red surface. It floated above Philia Shout’s palm.

That was a warning color – the color used to tell someone they were about to cross a line not meant to be crossed.

The blood-red bomb glowed in the darkness.

“So now I will attack more directly, leaving no piece of this world remaining. Mommy is saying she will clean up your mess, so at least you’ll be clean when you disintegrate!!!!!!”

Had she been pushed to this point?

Instead of hiding the bomb, she simply tossed it with a single hand.

“Ahh!?”

“Koo!!”

“I can sense it too. There’s this tingling pressure on my skin…is that a sorcery bomb!?” shouted Alicia Blueforest while tilting back a test tube to drink the physical boosting potion inside.

With the power this exposed, even the others could sense it.

If not for a flash of light that seemed to slice through space itself, Miyabi’s party may have been blown away along with the entire mountain.

The Lord of Ruin had drawn his sword.

Helen Clockgear gulped.

“It didn’t work, but since she threw it, physical contact must be the key. It may detonate after hitting someone or falling to the ground. Once that happens, there is no evading or defending. Armor means nothing against a sorcery bomb, so be careful!”

But surely this irregular action meant Philia Shout had lost sight of a guaranteed strategy.

The mother held her head in her horned hands and glared at Alma.

She could not defeat someone she should have defeated with ease.

She had been injured where she should have been invulnerable.

Of course she felt fear. Miyabi knew how it felt after having his own assumptions overturned so many times.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

“!?”

Philia Shout gave a start, but it was too late.

By then, Miyabi’s outstretched hand had already created a right triangular staircase out of stone.

The attacker had jumped up from the top of the Layer Stairs, so making a quick horizontal slash of the space in front of her was not enough to repel him.

Yes, the attacker.

The Lord of Ruin had leaped into the air.

He refused to kill a Wicked God no matter what, but their mother was a different matter. That distinction might seem contradictory, but it made perfect sense to the wielder of the demon blade.

Yes.

If she would harm her own children like a mother cat would kill and eat her kittens under certain circumstances, then he would do anything to separate them and protect the Wicked Gods.

For that, he was willing to wield the demon blade bearing the name of calamity.

“En garde!!”

After leaping from the top of the stone stairway, his blade dropped down like a guillotine.

The Mother of Wicked Gods immediately moved back.

But the masked old man’s sword was decorated with blood.

It was not much, but he had left a wound on her soft(-looking) cheek.

Then it happened.

“Grrrrr!!”

With rough movements, Philia Shout used her many sharp horns to slice off and tear away everything within reach: the trees, the flowers, the bugs, and even the animal bones.

She pulled them all toward her.

But was she really eating them?

Maybe it was all being absorbed into her large chest, maybe she was crushing and chewing it with her armpits, and maybe it was being directly absorbed into her palms.

Whatever the case, she curled up in a ball with her hands full, leaving her entirely open to attack. Yet Miyabi’s party could not move in that moment. They were overwhelmed and absorbed by the spectacle.

They could not let this mystery remain a mystery.

They sought understanding first and foremost.

But in the end, there was only one way of describing it.

“She’s s-swallowing all forms of life and traces of life around her?” groaned Eliza Silverstorm.

“Fusing with it may be more accurate. Whether organic or inorganic, she is directly absorbing the Palette Dice that form our world and converting them into power,” said the Necromancer while looking to the woman she could never see eye to eye with.

Then Kananka Fulpen realized something.

Something was squirming stickily along the horned girl’s soft skin.

No.

“Such suction. It’s even healing her wound!” he shouted.

“There’s no end to this if she can just do that forever!” added Celina in a frantic voice.

“Koo!!” cried Alma.

“Yeah, only if we let her do it forever!!” agreed Miyabi.

He adjusted his grip on the control sword that was a little small for a two-hand blade and charged in. She seemed to notice.

With a loud clang, she blocked his sword with a stone in her hand. But Miyabi was the one smiling.

“You sure you want to do that? Use that for defense and you can’t absorb it.”

“!?”

“That’s right. You’re supposed to focus on healing when that’s your goal. No matter how absurdly powerful you are, you can’t do everything at once!!”

They had to keep her from healing.

Or they had to damage her defenseless body faster than she could heal.

Eliza Silverstorm’s lance and Acacia and Ixea’s giant axes used their great attack power to repeatedly strike Philia Shout with attacks that could be fatal if she failed to respond to them.

“Nwaaahhhh!!!!!!” roared Onelife Shiftup as he charged in with enormous cutlass at the ready.

Those powerful attacks rarely hit, but they did devastating damage when they did. She had no choice but to respond and put off healing until later. This pirate had, after all, killed a Wicked God.

She glared at them with a look that felt like a curse.

The mother’s façade of confidence crumbled away. Her irritation became plain to see.

And either way…

“Ohhh!” shouted Onelife.

“It appears to be working.” Number 8 smiled a little. “My attacks should be powerful enough to accomplish the same thing.”

The one had a metal prosthetic hand and the other a morning star linked by electricity.

They made even more attacks before Philia Shout could strike back at the girls. And that was not all. Kananka’s boomerang informed them of the wind and air conditions while Celina’s rifle and Elaine’s bow provided further distractions for the 11th. By continuing the attack, the reckless challengers kept themselves safe on a mountain summit with nowhere to hide.

They did not allow their foe to heal or counterattack.

Miyabi adjusted his grip on the control sword and raised his voice again.

“This is over, 11th. We won’t give you a way out!!”

They all challenged her at once.

Philia Shout was undoubtedly fearsome, but she could be defeated.

Supposedly, anyway.

However.

“Hey, wait. This is insane!” shouted Alicia.

“How have you not accomplished anything after hitting her that many times!?” groaned the Philosopher’s Stone who was apparently keeping track.

“I am the strongest all on my own.” Philia Shout grumbled to herself while swaying side to side. “Yes, I cannot be defeated here.”

“Koo!!”

“So what if you’re the strongest!?” shouted Miyabi.

“Koooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!” responded Alma.

Alma’s call was answered by several smooth, yellow cubes falling from the sky. Seeing those unnatural boxes scattering strange sparks, Philia Shout stiffened and took a clear step back.

The yellow glow was a different warning color from the red cubes.

They were not as dangerous as the red wielded by the mother. They were not too far gone to return to the path of safety. The red coldly announced you had moved beyond the point of no return, but this warning kindly stopped you and gave you a chance. Hence, the yellow light.

“Kh!?”

And she had to have noticed something else.

She had let all the other attacks hit her, but for the first time, she flinched. That reaction proved that they had found a weakness in the supposedly untouchable Mother of Wicked Gods.

“Did the 11th just flinch!?” observed Helen.

“She did!!” confirmed Eliza.

Philia Shout realized there was no point trying to hide it.

She instead focused on understanding and overcoming.

“Are these high-energy blocks the Missing Dice?” she asked. “No, they aren’t even sorcery bombs.”

And.

She reached the destructive answer.

“Th-they don’t explode? They constantly draw on the horn’s energy yet remain stable!?”

“Nwohhhh!! This goes way over my head, but now’s our chance! I don’t know if we can actually damage her, but keep pushing and knock her into those sparking thiiiiiiiiiiings!!”

The others didn’t need Onelife’s prompting.

They could not ignore this.

Their attacks might not damage her, but they could at least physically push her. More of those sparking things fell down each time Alma cried, so Celina used her rifle, Kanaka his boomerang, and Elaine her bow. Those projectile weapons struck the cubes to give them erratic movements like they had a life of their own.

Finally, Philia Shout had nowhere left to escape.

She was surrounded.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

The sparking boxes suddenly rose up from the ground.

Miyabi had stimulated the ground to stack up several dirt cubes as a wall. The shaking of the ground pushed the sparking boxes up.

The fearsome boxes rolled like dice and left the ground to fly through the air. Miyabi didn’t even need to see the 11th’s widened eyes to tell that this had finally surpassed Philia Shout’s calculations.

They made contact.

The instant his control sword slammed into the sharp horn emerging from her elbow, she lost her balance and the sparks touched her right heel.

The heel contained a thick tendon, making it a weak point no one could train.

In the blink of an eye, the dreadful sparks raced up from her foot to the rest of her body.

“K-kooo!!!???”

“So even their original mother goes ‘koo’ when she cries out,” noted Number 8.

“Oh, dear. Is it over already? If so, I’ve lost all interest in researching you,” spat the Necromancer, striking the ground with her tongue whip.

“You’re the best, boss!”

“How can this be?”

Philia Shout stared at her own hands more than her enemy.

Specifically, at the horns growing from them.

Fine cracks ran through those horns until the finally broke off. They seemed to be losing their power, drying out from the inside, and deteriorating.

Had the core or marrow within burned away?

Her fingers became nothing more than the soft fingers of a girl. The horns covering her arm and leg joints crumbled away and thick cracks ran through ran through the white armor covering her chest and hips.

“I am the strongest. I was born with this power!!”

“So what if you’re the strongest?” said Miyabi straight to her face. “Who’s going to accept you as strongest if all you do is push others down to climb even higher on your own? Hell, I doubt you can accept it yourself.”

“!?”

“Alma’s suffering isn’t just about getting us involved in this mess too. Alma regrets having to turn on a fellow Wicked God and the mother of them all, so she wants to save you this time. It was that conviction that gave her the strength to climb back up onto the stage!!”

This time, they would push back.

They would push back and have their way.

“So we can’t lose.” Miyabi stared straight at her with the control sword gripped tight in his hands. “Alma decided to question the silly divisions between enemy and ally and to create a new path and that’s something that can never lose to a supposed strongest that can only destroy!!!!!!”

Philia Shout used her own projectiles to destroy the sparking cubes and Alma dropped more of them from the sky.

Miyabi charged in among it all.

He swung down his sword and Philia Shout bent backwards. But the Mother of Wicked Gods had a fierce smile on her lips. She had fallen back, but none of the sparking boxes of agony were there. The encirclement had been incomplete. She had slipped through a gap to find safety.

But she realized her mistake a moment later.

Yes, even if she had only wobbled from unexpected damage, it had been a mistake to create even the slightest opening.

“From the control sword to the horn core. Lucifer Horn – tactical open.” Miyabi flipped his sword around and stabbed it into the ground. “Blow her away, Lucifer Horn!!!!!!”

A thick beam of light dropped from the sky.

The attack seemed to burn away the entire summit, its shockwave and tremor rattling the world itself. The many agony boxes were sent airborne once more. The density of yellow changed, truly surrounding the mother in a deadly cage this time. It resembled a dome.

Miyabi was close enough to distinctly see her cheek tense.

“This isn’t over yet!!” she roared.

“So what if it isn’t?”

He raised his sword once more.

A normal blade could not harm her at this point and he was well aware of that.

But he did not give up.

“Did you think we’d give up just because we hadn’t perfected it the first time? You’re the one that refuses to allow the slightest flaw or mistake. You’re the one that gets too frustrated to even listen to your opponent’s excuses. You’re the only one left trembling from that kind of weakness!!”

A roar of impact followed.

Impact with one of the yellow cubes that had been knocked up from the ground.

Miyabi had swung his control sword horizontally, striking one of Alma’s manifestations of destruction that could supply critical damage to the Mother of Wicked Gods on contact.

Intense and tingling pain entered through his wrists and clutched at his heart.

The color white exploded in his mind.

For a moment, he nearly forgot where he even was.

But.

But his reckless attack had made a real difference.

He didn’t mind the pain.

As long as he could gather up the opportunities created by the others and make use of them here. As long as he could bring an end to the 11th’s attacks and protect the party who had fought alongside him. He focused on that through the pain and swung his sword as hard as he could, even if it made him cough up blood.

Just as Philia Shout was going to slip free of the surrounding cubes, he sealed off her exit and slammed one of the yellow cubes into her like a bullet!!!!!!

“Gahhh!!!???”

She arched her back.

The redhead boy had taken exactly the same amount of damage, but he had a smile on his face when he saw it.

This would give them a future.

So he would pursue her as far as it took. He might be injured too, but it meant something entirely different for her!!

Miyabi and Alma’s combined attacks had surrounded and cornered Philia Shout!!!!!!

“What…is happening?”

When she came to a stop, the yellow “bullets” hit her one after another. She could not avoid those deadly cubes as they contacted her in quick succession with their unnatural sparks that flowed deep inside the body of what looked like a slender girl.

None of the sharp horns adorning her body remained.

Time seemed to speed back up to normal and the strange-colored boxes dropped to the ground. Miyabi had made it through that tense moment. Yes, it was over.

He had to stab his sword into the ground and clench his teeth, but his trembling legs stayed beneath him. He remained standing.

More than his own life and destiny were riding on this, so he refused to let his own will make him collapse.

Philia Shout, on the other hand, fell to her knees.

She still couldn’t believe what had happened.

She had always had only herself and she could no longer hold her shoulders level.

“How did this…happen to me?”

So in the very end, it was confusion that filled her.

“I don’t recognize…this strength.”

Then she fully collapsed.

All of her horns had fallen out and only her pink hair blew in the mountain wind. She had been reduced to a pitifully defeated girl.

It ended in silence.

“You’ll understand someday,” said Miyabi, crouching down.

He took the collapsed girl’s hands and moved them to her back. He tied them together with some rope he found. He had his doubts that would accomplish much with the Mother of Wicked Gods, so it was more of a ritual to mark the battle as over in his mind.

“Once you learn to accept your weakness and rely on others.”

“Koo…”

“Yeah,” he agreed. He let out a soft breath, wiped the blood from his lips, and looked down at that living legend. “Let’s head home and rejoin the others.”

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